FEARING TURKISH GENERALS WRATH, IRANIAN CLERICS BACKS OFF

By IPS Diplomatic Correspondent Nina Kamran

PARIS-ANKARA-TEHRAN 30^TH July (IPS) Faced with new threats and warnings by the Turkish generals and government, the Iranian clerics, having in mind the Syrian example, decided to back off from their earlier though stand and offered a more reconciliatory rhetoric, saying the recent Turkish air raids on the border town of Piranshahr and a subsequent "aggression" on Qatour were a "mistake" that cannot be regarded as a scenario originated from the ties between Turkey and the Zionist regime".

Speaking to the official news agency IRNA, the Iranian deputy Interior Minister for Security and Intelligence Affairs Qolamhossein Bolandian played down the recent Turkish attacks on Iranian border areas, killing 5 and wounding another ten people by describing the incident a "mistake".

Mr. Bolandian acknowledged the area bombarded near Piranshahr is a place where Turkey had already launched operations against the PKK guerrillas extending from the heights of northern Iraq to the Iranian territory.

But not only the Turkish Government and military have rejected Iranian charges, saying their plane never bombed any area inside Iran, they even accused the Islamic Republic of giving military training to the Turkish Kurdish Stalinist organisation that seeks independence from Turkey.

Claiming that top Iranian officers were present at the PKK base, apparently to train Kurdish rebels, Air Force Commander General Ilhan Kilic told "Milliyet" newspaper he was "already receiving intelligence that Iranian officers were training the PKK".

"There is no possibility of a mistake. That place is Iraqi soil. "They (Turkish war planes) have such electronic equipment that they cannot make mistakes. We load in the coordinates and the computers do the bombing. Everything is recorded", added Chief of the General Staff Huseyin Kivrikoglu, commenting on the Iranian-claimed attack on Piranshahr, in the Iranian Province of Western Azarbaijan.

Iran systematically rejects the presence of PKK bases and peshmergas (Kurdish guerrillas) on its soil.

However, Mr. Bolandian warned that if Turkish "aggressions" continues, Iran will reciprocate. "This aggression is not the first one by Turkey, but we hope it will be the last, otherwise Iran will reciprocate," he told IRNA.

Asked about the Turkish inroads in Qotur, where two Turkish soldiers had been arrested by the Iranian border guards after they had crossed into the Iranian territory, the official, who is in charge of Iran-Turkey security arrangements, said the "aggression" has not been an organised one, the Turkish soldiers had penetrated 40 meters deep into the Iranian territory.

But Turkish officials, including Isma’il Cem, the Foreign Minister warned Friday that if the soldiers are not returned immediately, relations between the two neighbours could badly suffer.

As Tehran and Ankara were trading harsh words, a joint Iranian-Turkish delegation was visiting the area Iran says had been hit by Turkish bombs.

Mr. Bolandian said the immediate arrival of a 32-member Turkish delegation and examination of the area hit by the Turkish fighter planes and the admission of the fact indicated the good will on the part of Turkey.

"The Turkish delegation visited the bombardment scene and saw that the Turkish planes have targeted two tents belonged to the Iranian tribesmen five kilometres deep inside the Iranian territory. At first, they suggested that the US planes bombarded the point, but the experts documenting on the sharp gradient of the place proved that the Turkish planes have fired the rockets. The Turkish delegation have at last admitted that the bombardment has taken place by Turkish planes", the official pointed out.

Iran has asked Turkey for both formal apology and payment of unspecified damages, but Mr. Bulent Ecevit, the Turkish Prime Minister has rejected both demands.

In a television interview Mr. Ecevit said that Iran has taken over the role formerly played by Syria in supporting and harbouring the terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

The prime minister also stressed that Ankara was "seriously anxious" about the Iranian attitude and dubbed as "flimsy pretexts" the series of accusations recently directed a Turkey by Tehran.

Extremely worried by the Ankara-Tel-Aviv military and security agreement, Tehran routinely accuses Israel of being behind the tensions between the two Muslim neighbours. "The Zionist regime mischievously exploits them. Perhaps certain elements within the Turkish army give green light to the Zionists, but we, as a neighbouring state think that the aggressions were not intentional", Mr. Bolandian commented.

Both the Islam-based regime of Tehran and the staunchly secularist Ankara accuses each other of reverting to tensions to evade the public opinion from internal chaos and troubles. "Iran's internal affairs are fairly chaotic at the moment. I imagine they want the attention elsewhere. That is why they are behaving like this", General Kilic said.

"Some neighbouring countries, such as turkey which is currently beset by domestic problems is diverting its people's attention by causing problems for Iran and charging it with baseless accusations", countered the pro-conservative "Tehran Times".

Shi’a Iran and Sunni Turkey are also at loggerhead on a number of other issues, including bitter rivalry for leadership in the newly independent Central Asia.

With existing network of pipe lines, Iran considers itself as the natural road for transporting oil and natural gas from the Caspian Sea and oil rich Central Asian nations to the international markets, but since it considers the US as the Great Satan, it is loosing this opportunity to Turkey, Washington’s main ally in the region.

Turkey is also infuriated by Iranian financial and propaganda support to Turkish islamist organisations and personalities, as they did for the former Rifah Party and a female Islamist MP who was expelled from parliament and stripped of her citizenship after refusing to take off her Islamic headscarf while swearing in.

In turn, Iran reacted sharply to statements by Turkish officials public support for the Iranian students who staged pro-democracy demonstrations in Tehran and chanting slogans against the regime’s top leader, the ayatollah Ali Khameneh’i.